Hungry muncher in the bunch of dill.
Anybody have an idea what kind of caterpillar this is? It showed up in the bunch of dill that I was arranging when I came to photograph this week’s share. Despite the attention from my camera’s giant glass eye, the hungry caterpillar kept on munching. I put it on a plant outside the barn. Keep your eyes open because there could be more lurking. Margie said she spotted another caterpillar and picked off another one in a different bunch of dill.
I also heard a cricket chirping in my share box! Haven’t found it yet, and not sure where it is. Always an adventure with farm food!
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That, to quote Wikipedia, is the “(Eastern) Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) also called the American Swallowtail or Parsnip Swallowtail,[1] is a butterfly found throughout much of North America.” It feeds on parsley, dill, carrots, and evidently parsnips, though I’ve never seen that. It is not common here but rather seems to drop by during Fall and Spring migration times. It doesn’t eat much compared to the beauty it will share … hopefully we can all share some food with it.
Love that name, Parsnip Swallowtail! Margie tapped it on its nose and it stuck out a forked tongue, as it were (forgot what it’s called, osmeterum?) That would put it in the swallowtail family. The dill came from Worden Farm, not Bee Heaven Farm. I put the caterpillar on a papaya plant, so that might not work out in terms of caterpillar cuisine. Now I wish I left it alone.
I think it’s a monarch caterpillar. If you google that,
to finish the thought about the Monarch, if you google it you’ll find the larvae feed on milkweeds, not dill, and also it has antennae-looking things, which this one doesn’t. And its stripes are more stripey. This is not that.
Yes, definitely the swallowtail. The weird organ that protrudes on touch as Marian noted, is called an osmeretium and is used to scare off predators – from Wikipedia –
The osmeterium is a fleshy organ found in the prothoracic segment of larvae (caterpillars) of Swallowtail butterflies including Birdwings. This organ emits smelly compounds believed to be pheromones. Normally hidden, this forked structure can be everted when the caterpillar is threatened, and used to emit a foul-smelling secretion containing terpenes.
Here’s one on my dill in the Redland from last winter:
I fixed the link, no worries.
Let’s try this:
Thanks for sharing, Bill. Yes, it looks just like the one I found. Dill is a pretty addition to a butterfly garden, and bees love dill once it blooms.